Third class in Indian railways

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Third Class in
Indian Railways

THIRD CLASS

IN

INDIAN RAILWAYS

BY

M. K. GANDHI

GANDHI PUBLICATIONS LEAGUE
BHADARKALI - LAHORE

-161-

THIRD CLASS IN INDIAN RAILWAYS*

I have now been in India for over two years and
a half after my return from South Africa. Over
one quarter of that time I have passed on the Indian
trains travelling third class by choice. I have
travelled up north as far as Lahore, down south up
to Tranquebar, and from Karachi to Calcutta.
Having resorted to third class travelling, among
other reasons, for the purpose of studying the
conditions under which this class of passengers
travel, I have naturally made as critical observa-
tions as I could. I have fairly covered the majority of
railway systems during this period. Now and then
I have entered into correspondence with the manage-
ment of the different railways about the defects
that have come under my notice. But I think that
the time has come when I should invite the press
and the public to join in a crusade against a griev-
ance which has too long remained unredressed,
though much of it is capable of redress without
great difficulty.

On the 12th instant I booked at Bombay for
Madras by the mail train and paid Rs. 13-9. It was
labelled to carry 22 passengers. These could only
have seating accommodation. There were no bunks
in this carriage whereon passengers could lie with any
degree of safety or comfort. There were two nights
to be passed in this train before reaching Madras.
If not more than 22 passengers found their way into
my carriage before we reached Poona, it was because
the bolder ones kept the others at bay. With the
exception of two or three insistent passengers, all
had to find their sleep being seated all the time.
After reaching Raichur the pressure became un-

*Ranchi, September 25, 1917.

102

bearable. The rush of passengers could not be
stayed. The fighters among us found the task almost
beyond them. The guards or other railway servants
came in only to push in more passengers.

A defiant Memon merchant protested against
this packing of passengers like sardines. In vain did
he say that this was his fifth night on the train.
The guard insulted him and referred him to the
management at the terminus. There were during
this night as many as 35 passengers in the carriage
during the greater part of it. Some lay on the floor
in the midst of dirt and some had to keep standing.
A free fight was, at one time, avoided only by the
intervention of some of the older passengers who did
not want to add to the discomfort by an exhibition
of temper.

On the way passengers got for tea tannin water
with filthy sugar and a whitish looking liquid mis-
called milk which gave this water a muddy appear-
ance. I can vouch for the appearance, but I cite the
testimony of the passengers as to the taste.

Not during the whole of the journey was the
compartment once swept or cleaned. The result
was that every time you walked on the floor or
rather cut your way through the passengers seated
on the floor, you waded through dirt.

The closet was also not cleaned during the
journey and there was no water in the water tank.

Refreshments sold to the passengers were dirty-
looking, handed by dirtier hands, coming out of
filthy receptacles and weighed in equally unattract-
ive scales. These were previously sampled by
millions of flies. I asked some of the passengers
who went in for these dainties to give their opinion.
Many of them used choice expressions as to the
quality but were satisfied to state that they were
helpless in the matter ; they had to take things
as they came.

On reaching the station I found that the ghari-
wala would not take me unless I paid the fare he
wanted. I mildly protested and told him I would

pay him the authorised fare. I had to turn passive
resister before I could be taken. I simply told him
he would have to pull me out of the ghari or call the
policeman.

The return journey was performed in no better
manner. The carriage was packed already and but
for a friend's intervention I could not have been
able to secure even a seat. My admission was
certainly beyond the authorised number. This com-
partment was constructed to carry 9 passengers but
it had constantly 12 in it. At one place an important
railway servant swore at a protestant, threatened
to strike him and locked the door over the passengers
whom he had with difficulty squeezed in. To this
compartment there was a closet falsely so called. It
was designed as a European closet but could hardly
be used as such. There was a pipe in it but no
water, and I say without fear of challenge that it
was pestilentially dirty.

The compartment itself was evil looking. Dirt
was lying thick upon the wood work and I do not
know that it had ever seen soap or water.

The compartment had an exceptional assort-
ment of passengers. There were three stalwart
Punjabi Mahomedans, two refined Tamilians and
two Mahornedan merchants who joined us later.
The merchants related the bribes they had to give to
procure comfort. One of the Punjabis had already
travelled three nights and was weary and fatigued.
But he could not stretch himself. He said he had
sat the whole day at the Central Station watching
passengers giving bribe to procure their tickets.
Another said he had himself to pay Rs. 5 before he
could get his ticket and his seat. These three men
were bound for Ludhiana and had still more nights
of travel in store for them.

What I have described is not exceptional but
normal. I have got down at Raichur, Dhond, Sone-
pur, Chakradharpur, Purulia, Asansol and other
junction stations and been at the ' Mosafirkhanas '
attached to these stations. They are discreditable-

looking places where there is no order, no cleanli-
ness but utter confusion and horrible din and noise.
Passengers have no benches or not enough to sit
on. They squat on dirty floors and eat dirty food.
They are permitted to throw the leavings of their
food and spit where they like, sit how they like
and smoke everywhere. The closets attached to
these places defy description. I have not the power
adequately to describe them without committing a
breach of the laws of decent speech. Disinfecting
powder, ashes, or disinfecting fluids are unknown.
The army of flies buzzing about them warns you
against their use. But a third-class traveller is dumb
and helpless. He does not want to complain even
though to go to these places may be to court death.
I know passengers who fast while they are travelling
just in order to lessen the misery of their life in
the trains. At Sonepur flies having failed, wasps
have come forth to warn the public and the authori-
ties, but yet to no purpose. At the Imperial Capital
a certain third class booking-office is a Black-Hole
fit only to be destroyed.

Is it any wonder that plague has become endemic
in India ? Any other result is impossible where
passengers always leave some dirt where they go and
take more on leaving.

On Indian trains alone passengers smoke with
impunity in all carriages irrespective of the presence
of the fair sex and irrespective of the protest of
non-smokers. And this, notwithstanding a bye-law
which prevents a passenger from smoking without
the permission of his fellows in the compartment
which is not allotted to smokers.

The existence of the awful war cannot be
allowed to stand in the way of the removal ot this
gigantic evil. War can be no warrant for tolerating
dirt and overcrowding. One could understand an
entire stoppage of passenger traffic in a crisis like
this, but never a continuation or accentuation of
insanitation and conditions that must undermine
health and morality.

Compare the lot of the first class passengers
with that of the third class. In the Madras case the
first class fare is over five times as much as the
third class fare. Does the third class passenger get
one-fifth, even one-tenth, of the comforts of his first
class fellow ? It is but simple justice to claim that
some relative proportion be observed between the
cost and comfort.

It is a known fact that the third class traffic
pays for the ever-increasing luxuries of first and
second class travelling. Surely a third class passen-
ger is entitled at least to the bare necessities of life.

In neglecting the third class passengers, oppor-
tunity of giving a splendid education to millions
in orderliness, sanitation, decent composite life and
cultivation of simple and clean tastes is being lost.
Instead of receiving an object lesson in these matters
third class passengers have their sense of decency
and cleanliness blunted during their travelling ex-
perience.

Among the many suggestions that can be made for
dealing with the evil here described, I would respect-
fully include this : let the people in high places, the
Viceroy, the Commander-in-Chief, the Rajas, Maha-
rajas, the Imperial Councillors and others, who
generally travel in superior classes, without previous
warning, go through the experiences now and then
of third class travelling. We would then soon
see a remarkable change in the conditions of third
class travelling and the uncomplaining millions will
get some return for the fares they pay under the ex-
pectation of being carried from place to place with
ordinary creature comforts.

VERNACULARS AS MEDIA OF INSTRUCTION*

It is to be hoped that Dr. Mehta's labour of
love will receive the serious attention of English-
educated India. The following pages were written
by him for the Vedanta Kesari of Madras and are now
printed in their present form for circulation through-
out India. The question of vernaculars as media of
instruction is of national importance ; neglect of
the vernaculars means national suicide. One hears
many protagonists of the English language being
continued as the medium of instruction pointing
to the fact that English-educated Indians are the sole
custodians of public and patriotic work. It would
be monstrous if it were not so. For the only education
given in this country is through the English language.
The fact, however, is that the results are not all
proportionate to the time we give to our education.
We have not reacted on the masses. But I must
not anticipate Dr. Mehta. He is in earnest. He
writes feelingly. He has examined the pros and
cons and collected a mass of evidence in support
of his arguments. The latest pronouncement on the
subject is that of the Viceroy. Whilst His Excellency
is unable to offer a solution, he is keenly alive to the
necessity of imparting instruction in our schools
through the vernaculars. The Jews of Middle and
Eastern Europe, who are scattered in all parts of
the world, finding it necessary to have a common
tongue for mutual intercourse, have raised Yiddish
to the status of a language, and have succeeded
in translating into Yiddish the best books to be
found in the world's literature. Even they could
not satisfy the soul's yearning through the many
foreign tongues of which they are masters ; nor did

Introduction to Dr. Mehta's *' Self-Government Series".

the learned few among them wish to tax the masses
of the Jewish population with having to learn a
foreign language before they could realise their
dignity. So they have enriched what was at
one time looked upon as a mere jargon — but what
the Jewish children learnt from their mothers — by
taking special pains to translate into it the best
thought of the world. This is a truly marvellous
work. It has been done during the present genera-
tion, and Webster's Dictionary defines it as a
polyglot jargon used for inter-communication by
Jews from different nations.

But a Jew of Middle and Eastern Europe would
feel insulted if his mother tongue were now so des-
cribed. If these Jewish scholars have succeeded,
within a generation, in giving their masses a langu-
age of which they may feel proud, surely it should
be an easy task for us to supply the needs of our
own vernaculars which are cultured languages.
South Africa teaches us the same lesson. There
was a duel there between the Taal, a corrupt form
of Dutch, and English. The Boer mothers and the
Boer fathers were determined that they would not let
their children, with whom they in their infancy
talked in the Taal, be weighed down with having to
receive instruction through English. The case for
English here was a strong one. It had able pleaders
for it. But English had to yield before Boer patriot-
ism. It may be observed that they rejected even the
High Dutch. The school masters, therefore, who
are accustomed to speak the published Dutch of
Europe, are compelled to teach the easier Taal. And
literature of an excellent character is at the present
moment growing up in South Africa in the Taal,
which was only a few years ago, the common
medium of speech between simple but brave rustics.
If we have lost faith in our vernaculars, it is a
sign of want of faith in ourselves ; it is the surest
sign of decay. And no scheme of self-government,
however benevolently or generously it may be
bestowed upon us, will ever make us a self-govern-

ing nation, if we have no respect for the languages
our mothers speak.

10

SWADESHI*

It was not without great diffidence that I under-
took to speak to you at all. And I was hard put to
it in the selection of my subject. I have chosen
a very delicate and difficult subject. It is delicate
because of the peculiar views I hold upon Swadeshi,
and it is difficult because I have not that command
of language which is necessary for giving adequate
expression to my thoughts. I know that I may rely
upon your indulgence for the many shortcomings you
will no doubt find in my address, the more so when
I tell you that there is nothing in what I am about to
say that I am not either already practising or am
not preparing to practise to the best of my ability.
It encourages me to observe that last month you
devoted a week to prayer in the place of an address.
I have earnestly prayed that what I am about to say
may bear fruit and I know that you will bless my
word with a similar prayer.

After much thinking I have arrived at a defini-
tion of Swadeshi that, perhaps, best illustrates my
meaning. Swadeshi is that spirit in us which restricts
us to the use and service of our immediate surround-
ings to the exclusion of the more remote. Thus,
as for religion, in order to satisfy the requirements
of the definition, I must restrict myself to my an-
cestral religion. That is the use of my immediate
religious surrounding. If I find it defective, I should
serve it by purging it of its defects. In the domain
of politics I should make use of the indigenous
institutions and serve them by curing them of their
proved defects. In that of economics I should use
only things that are produced by my immediate

*Address delivered before the Missionary Conference on
February 14, 1916.

11

neighbours and serve those industries by making
them efficient and complete where they might be
found wanting. It is suggested that such Swadeshi,
if reduced to practice, will lead to the millennium.
And, as we do not abandon our pursuit after the
millennium, because we do not expect quite to
reach it within our times, so may we not abandon
Swadeshi even though it may not be fully attained
for generations to come.

Let us briefly examine the three branches of
Swadeshi as sketched above. Hinduism has become
a conservative religion and, therefore, a mighty
force because of the Swadeshi spirit underlying it.
It is the most tolerant because it is non-proselytising,
and it is as capable of expansion today as it has
been found to be in the past. It has succeeded not
in driving out, as I think it has been erroneously
held, but in absorbing Buddhism. By reason of the
Swadeshi spirit, a Hindu refuses to change his reli-
gion, not necessarily because he considers it
to be the best, but because he knows that he
can complement it by introducing reforms. And
what I have said about Hinduism is, I suppose, true
of the other great faiths of the world, only it is
held that it is specially so in the case of Hinduism.
But here comes the point I am labouring to reach.
If there is any substance in what I have said, will
not the great missionary bodies of India, to whom
she owes a deep debt of gratitude for what they
have done and are doing, do still better and serve
the spirit of Christianity better by dropping the goal
of proselytising while continuing their philanthropic
work ? I hope you will not consider this to be an
impertinence on my part. I make the suggestion in
all sincerity and with due humility. Moreover I
have some claim upon your attention. I have en-
deavoured to study the Bible. I consider it as part
of my scriptures. The spirit of the Sermon on the
'Mount competes almost on equal terms with the
Bhagavad Gita for the domination of my heart.
I yield to no Christian in the strength of devotion

12

with which I sing " Lead kindly light " and several
other inspired hymns of a similar nature. I have
come under the influence of noted Christian mis-
sionaries belonging to different denominations. And
enjoy to this day the privilege of friendship with
some of them. You will perhaps, therefore, allow
that I have offered the above suggestion not as a
biased Hindu, but as a humble and impartial student
of religion with great^ leanings towards Christianity.
May it not be that " Go ye unto all the world "
message has been somewhat narrowly interpreted
and the spirit of it missed ? It will not be denied, I
speak from experience, that many of the conversions
are only so-called. In some cases the appeal has
gone not to the heart but to the stomach. And
in every case a conversion leaves a sore behind
it which, I venture to think, is avoidable. Quoting
again from experience, a new birth, a change of
heart, is perfectly possible in every one of the
great faiths. I know I am now treading upon thin
ice. But I do not apologise in closing this part
of my subject, for saying that the frightful outrage
that is just going on in Europe, perhaps shows that
the message of Jesus of Nazareth, the Son of Peace,
had been little understood in Europe, and that light
upon it may have to be thrown from the East.

I have sought your help in religious matters,
which it is yours to give in a special sense. But
I make bold to seek it even in political matters.
I do not believe that religion has nothing to do
with politics. The latter divorced from religion
is like a corpse only fit to be buried. As a matter of
fact, in your own silent manner, you influence
politics not a little. And I feel that, if the attempt
to separate politics from religion had not been
made as it is even now made, they would not have
degenerated as they often appear to have done.
No one considers that the political life of the
country is in a happy state. Following out the
Swadeshi spirit, I observe the indigenous institutions
and the village panchayats hold me. India is really

13

a republican country, and it is because it is that,
that it has, survived every shock hitherto delivered.
Princes and potentates, whether they were Indian
born or foreigners, have hardly touched the vast
masses except for collecting revenue. The latter
in their turn seem to have rendered unto Caesar
what was Caesar's and for the rest have done much
as they have liked. The vast organisation of caste
answered not only the religious wants of the com-
munity, but it answered to its political needs. The
villagers managed their internal affairs through the
caste system, and through it they dealt with any
oppression from the ruling power or powers. It
is not possible to deny of a nation that was capable
of producing the caste system its wonderful power
of organisation. One had but to attend the great
Kumbha Mela at Hardwar last year to know
how skilful that organisation must have been, which
without any seeming effort was able effectively
to cater for more than a million pilgrims. Yet it
is the fashion to say that. we lack organising ability.
This is true, I fear, to a certain extent, of those who
have been nurtured in the new traditions. We have
laboured under a terrible handicap owing to an
almost fatal departure from the Swadeshi spirit.
We, the educated classes, have received our educa-
tion through a foreign tongue. We have therefore
not reacted upon the masses. We want to represent
the masses, but we fail. They recognise us not
much more than they recognise the English officers.
Their hearts are an open book to neither. Their
aspirations are not ours. Hence their is a break.
And you witness not in reality failure to organise
but want of correspondence between the representa-
tives and the represented. If during the last fifty
years we had been educated through the vernaculars,
our elders and our servants and our neighbours
would have partaken of our knowledge; the discover-
ies of a Bose or a Ray would have been household
treasures as are the Ramayan and the Mahabharat.
As it is, so far as the masses are concerned, those

14

great discoveries might as well have been made
by foreigners. Had instruction in all the branches
of learning been given through the vernaculars, I
make bold to say that they would have been enriched
wonderfully. The question of village sanitation, etc.,
would have been solved long ago. The village
panchayats would be now a living force in a special
way, and India would almost be enjoying self-
government suited to its requirements and would
have been spared the humiliating spectacle of orga-
nised assassination on its sacred soil. It is not
too late to mend. And you can help if you will,
as no other body or bodies can.

And now for the last division of Swadeshi,
much of the deep poverty of the masses is due
to the ruinous departure from Swadeshi in the
economic and industrial life. If not an article of
commerce had been brought from outside India, she
would be today a land flowing with milk and
honey. But that was not to be. We were greedy
and so was England. The connection between
England and India was based clearly upon an error.
But she does not remain in India in error. It is
her declared policy that India is to be held in trust
for her people. If this be true, Lancashire must
stand aside. And if the Swadeshi doctrine is a
sound doctrine, Lancashire can stand aside without
hurt, though it may sustain a shock for the time
being. I think of Swadeshi not as a boycott move-
ment undertaken by way of revenge. I concieve it as
religious prir.ciple to be followed by all. I am no
economist, but I have read some treatises which
show that England could easily become a self-
sustained country, growing all the produce she needs.
This may be an utterly ridiculous preposition, and
perhaps the best proof that it cannot be true, is
that England is one of the largest importers in
the world. But India cannot live for Lancashire
or any other country before she is able to live
for herself. And she can live for herself only if
she produces and is helped to produce everything

15

for her requirements within her own borders. She
need not be, she ought not to be, drawn into
the vertex of mad and ruinous competition which
breeds fratricide, jealousy and many other evils.
But who is to stop her great millionaires from
entering into the world competition ? Certainly not
legislation. Force of public opinion, proper educa-
tion, however, can do a great deal in the desired
direction. The hand-loom industry is in a dying
condition. I took special care during my wanderings
last year to see as many weavers as possible, and
my heart ached to find how they had lost, how
families had retired from this once flourishing and
honourable occupation. If we follow the Swadeshi
doctrine, it would be your duty and mine to find out
neighbours who can supply our wants and to teach
them to supply them where they do not know how
to proceed, assuming that there ar,e neighbours who
are in want of healthy occupation. Then every
village of India will almost be a self-supporting
and self-contained unit, exchanging only such
necessary commodities with other villages where
they are not locally producible. This may all sound
nonsensical. Well, India is a country of nonsense.
It is nonsensical to parch one's throat with thirst
when a kindly Mahomedan is ready to offer pure
water to drink. And yet thousands of Hindus would
rather die of thirst than drink water from a
Mahomedan household. These nonsensical men
can also, once they are convinced that their religion
demands that they should wear garments manufac-
tured in India only and eat food only grown in
India, decline to wear any other clothing or eat any
other food. Lord Curzon set the fashion for tea-
drinking. And that pernicious drug now bids fair
to overwhelm the nation. It has already undermined
the digestive apparatus of hundrends of thousands
of men and women and constitutes an additional tax
upon their slender purses. Lord Hardinge can set
the fashion for Swadeshi, and almost the whole of
India forswear foreign goods. There is a verse

16

in the Bhagavad Gita, which, freely rendered, means,
masses follow the classes. It is easy to undo the
evil if the thinking portion of the community were
to take the Swadeshi vow even though it may, for a
time, cause considerable inconvenience. I hate
legislative inteference, in any department of life.
At best it is the lesser evil. But I would tolerate,
welcome, indeed, plead for a stiff protective duty
upon foreign goods. Natal, a British colony, pro-
tected its sugar by taxing the sugar that came from
another British colony, Mauritius. England has
sinned against India by forcing free trade upon her.
It may have been food for her, but it has been
poison for this country.

It has often been urged that India cannot adopt
Swadeshi in the economic life at any rate. Those
who advance this objection do not look upon
Swadeshi as a rule of life. With them it is a mere
patriotic effort not to be made if it involved any
self-denial. Swadeshi, as defined here, is a religious
discipline to be undergone in utter disregard of
the physical discomfort it may cause to individuals.
Under its spell the deprivation of a pin or a needle,
because these are not manufactured in India, need
cause no terror. A Swadeshist will learn to dq with-
out hundreds of things which today he considers
necessary. Moreover, those who dismiss Swadeshi
from their minds by arguing the impossible, forget
that Swadeshi, after all, is a goal to be reached
by steady effort. And we would be making for the
goal even if we confined Swadeshi to a given set
of articles allowing ourselves as a temporary measure
to use such things as might not be procurable in
the country.

There now remains for me to consider one more
objection that has been raised against Swadeshi.
The objectors consider it to be a most selfish doctrine
without any warrant in the civilised code of mora-
lity. With them to practise Swadeshi is to revert
to barbarism. I cannot enter into a detailed analy-
sis of the position. But I would urge that Swadeshi

17

is the only doctrine consistent with the law of humi-
lity and love. It is arrogance to think of launching
out to serve the whole of India when I am hardly
able to serve even my own family. It were better
to concentrate my effort upon the family and con-
sider that through them I was serving the whole
nation and, if you will, the whole of humanity.
This is humility and it is love. The motive will
determine the quality of the act. I may serve my
family regardless of the sufferings I may cause to
others. As for instance, I may accept an employ-
ment which enables me to extort money from people,
I enrich myself thereby and then satisfy many
unlawful demands of the family. Here I am neither
serving the family nor the State. Or I may recog-
nise that God has given me hands and feet only to
work with for my sustenance and for that of those
who may be dependent upon me. I would then at
once simplify my life and that of those whom I can
directly reach. In this instance I would have served
the family without causing injury to anyone else.
Supposing that everyone followed this mode of life,
we should have at once an ideal state. All will not
reach that state at the same time. But those of
us who, realising its truth, enforce it in practice will
clearly anticipate and accelerate the coming of that
happy day. Under this plan of life, in seeming to
serve India to the exclusion of every other county,
I do not harm any other country. My patriotism is
both exclusive and inclusive. It is exclusive in the
sense that in all humility I confine my attention to
the land of my birth, but it is inclusive in the sense
that my service is not of a competitive or antagonis-
tic nature. Sic utere tuo ut alienum non la is not
merely a legal maxim, but it is a grand doctrine of
life. It is the key to a proper practice of Ahimsa or
love. It is for you, the custodians of a great faith,
to set the fashion and show, by your preaching,
sanctified by practice, that patriotism based on
hatred *' killeth " and that patriotism based on love
41 giveth life."

18

AHIMSA*

There seems to be no historical warrant for the
belief that an exaggerated practice of Ahimsa syn-
chronise with our becoming bereft of manly virtues.
During the past 1,500 years we have, as a nation,
given ample proof of physical courage, but we have
been torn by internal dissensions and have been
dominated by love of self instead of love of country.
We have, that is to say, been swayed by the spirit of
irreligion rather than of religion.

I do not know how far the charge of unmanli-
ness can be made good against the Jains. I hold no
brief for them. By birth I am a Vaishnavite, and
was taught Ahimsa in my childhood. I have derived
much religious benefit from Jain religious works as I
have from scriptures of the other great faiths of the
world. I owe much to the living company of the
deceased philosopher, Rajachand Kavi, who was a
Jain by birth. Thus, though my views on Ahimsa
are a result of my study of most of the faiths of the
world, they are now no longer dependent upon the
authority of these works. They are a part of my life,
and, if I suddenly discovered that the religious books
lead by me bore a different interpretation from the
one I had learnt to give them, I should still hold
to the view of Ahimsa as I am about to set forth
here.

Our Shastras seem to teach that a man who
really practises Ahimsa in its fulness has the world
at his feet ; he so affects his surroundings that even
the snakes and other venomous reptiles do him no
harm. This is said to have been the experience of
St. Francis of Assisi.

In its negative form it means not injuring any

'The Modern Review. October, 1916.

19

living being whether by body or mind. It may not,
therefore, hurt the person of any wrong-doer, or bear
any ill-will to him and so cause him mental suffering.
This statement does not cover suffering caused to
the wrong-doer by natural acts of mine which do not
proceed from ill-will. It, therefore, does not prevent
me from withdrawing from his presence a child
whom he, we shall imagine, is about to strike.
Indeed, the proper practice of Ahimsa requires me
to withdraw the intended victim from the wrong-
doer, if I am, in any way whatsoever, the guardian
of such a child. It was, therefore, most proper for
the passive resisters of South Africa to have resisted
the evil that the Union Government sought to do
to them. They bore no ill-will to it. They showed
this by helping the Government whenever it needed
their help. Their resistance consisted of disobedience
of the orders of the Government, even to the extent
of suffering death at their hands. Ahimsa requires
deliberate self-suffering, not a deliberate injuring
of the supposed wrong-doer.

In its positive form, Ahimsa means the largest
love, the greatest charity. If I am a follower of
Ahimsa, I must love my enemy. I must apply, the
same rules to the wrong -doer who is my enemy or a
stranger to me, as I would to my wrong-doing father
or son. This active Ahimsa necessarily includes
truth and fearlessness. As man cannot deceive the
loved one, he does not fear or frighten him or her.
Gift of life is the greatest of all gifts ; a man who
gives it in reality, disarms all hostility. He has
paved the way for an honourable understanding.
And none who is himself subject to fear can bestow
that gift. He must, therefore, be himself fearless.
A man cannot then practice Ahimsa and be a coward
at the same time. The practice of Ahimsa calls forth
the greatest courage. It is the most soldierly of a
soldier's virtues. General Gordon has been repre-
sented in a famous statue as bearing only a stick.
This takes us far on the road to Ahimsa. But a
soldier, who needs the protection of even a stick, is

20

to that extent so much the less a soldier. He is
the true soldier who knows how to die and stand his
ground in the midst of a hail of bullets. Such a one
was Ambarisha, who stood his ground without lifting
a finger though Duryasa did his worst. The Moors
who were being pounded by the French gunners and
who rushed to the guns' mouths with * Allah ' on
their lips, showed much the same type of courage.
Only theirs was the courage of desperation. Amba-
risha's was due to love. Yet the Moorish valour,
readiness to die, conquered the gunners. They
frantically waved their hats, ceased firing, and
greeted their erstwhile enemies as comrades. And
so the South African passive resisters in their thou-
sands were ready to die rather than sell their
honour for a little personal ease. This was Ahimsa
in its active form. It never barters away honour. A
helpless girl in the hands of a follower of Ahimsa
finds better and surer protection than in the hands
of one who is prepared to defend her only to the
point to which his weapons would carry him. The
tyrant, in the first instance, will have to walk to his
victim over the dead body of her defender ; in the
second, he has but to overpower the defender ; for it
is assumed that the cannon of propriety in the
second instance will be satisfied when the defender
has fought to the extent of his physical valour. In
the first instance, as the defender has matched his
very soul against the mere body of the tyrant, the
odds «are that the soul in the latter will be awaken-
ed, and the girl would stand and infinitely greater
chance of her honour being protected than in any
other conceivable circumstance, barring of course,
that of her own personal courage.

If we are unmanly today, we are so, not because
we do not know how to strike, but because we fear
to die. He is no follower of Mahavira, the apostle
of Jainism, or of Buddha or of the Vedas, who being
afraid to die, takes flight before any danger, real
or imaginary, all the while wishing that somebody
else would remove the danger by destroying the

21

person causing it. He is no follower of Ahimsa who
. does not care a straw if he kills a man by inches by
deceiving him in trade, or who would protect by
force of arms a few cows and make away with the
butcher or who, in order to do a supposed good to
his country, does not mind killing off a few officials.
All these are actuated by hatred, cowardice and fear
Here the love of the cow or the country is a vague
thing intended to satisfy one's vanity, or soothe a
stinging conscience.

Ahimsa truly understood is in my humble
opinion a panacea for all evils mundane and extra-
mundane. We can never overdo it. Just at present
we are not doing it at all. Ahimsa does not displace
the practice of other virtues, but renders their prac-
tice imperatively necessary before it can be practised
even in its rudiments. Mahavira and Buddha were
soldiers, and so was Tolstoy. Only thej7 saw deeper
and truer into their profession, and found the secret
of a true, happy, honourable and godly life. Let us
be joint sharers with these teachers, and this land of
ours will once more be the abode of gods.

THE MORAL BASIS OF CO-OPERATION*

The only claim I have on your indulgence is
that some months ago I attended with Mr. Ewbank
a meeting of mill-hands to whom he wanted to
explain the principles of co-operation. The chawl
in which they were living was as filthy as it well
could be. Recent rains had made matters worse.
And I must frankly confess that, had it not been for
Mr. Ewbank's great zeal for the cause he has made
his own, I should have shirked the task. But there
we were, seated on a fairly worn-out charpai,
surrounded by men, women and children. Mr.
Ewbank opened fire on a man who had put himself
forward and who wore not a particularly innocent
countenance. After he had engaged him and the
other people about him in Gujrati conversation,
he wanted me to speak to the people. Owing to the
suspicious looks of the man who was first spoken to,
I naturally pressed home the moralities of co-opera-
tion. I fancy that Mr. Ewbank rather liked the
manner in which I handled the subject. Hence, I
believe, his kind invitation to me to tax your patience
for a few moments upon a consideration of co-opera- «
tion from a moral standpoint.

My knowledge of the technicality of co-opera-
tion is next to nothing. My brother, Devadhar, has
made the subject his own. Whatever he does,
naturally attracts me and predisposes me to think
that there must be something good in it and the
handling of it must be fairly difficult. Mr. Ewbank
very kindly placed at my disposal some literature
too on the subject. And I have had a unique
opportunity of watching the effect of some co-opera-

*Paper contributed to the Bombay Provincial Co-operative
Conference, September 17, 1917.

23

tive effort in Champaran. I have gone through
Mr. Ewbank's ten main points which are like rhe
Commandments, and I-have gone through the twelve
points of Mr. Collins of Behar, which remind me
of the law of the Twelve Tables. There are so-called
agricultural banks in Champaran. They were to me
disappointing efforts, if they were meant to be
demonstrations of the success of co-operation. On
the other hand, there is quiet work in the same
direction being done by Mr. PJodge, a missionary
whose efforts are leaving their impress on those
who come in contact with him. Mr. Hodge is a
co-operative enthusiast and probably considers that
the result which he sees flowing from his efforts are
due to the working of co-operation. I, who was
able to watch the efforts, had no hesitation in infer-
ring that the personal equation counted for success
in the one and failure in the other instance.

I am an enthusiast myself, but twenty-five years
of experimenting and experience have made me a
cautious and discriminating enthusiast. Workers
in a cause necessarily, though quite unconsciously,
exaggerate its merits and often succeed in turning
its very defects into advantages. In spite of my
caution I consider the little institution I am con-
ducting in Ahmedabad as the finest thing in the
world. It alone gives me sufficient inspiration.
Critics tell me that it represents a soulless soul-force
and that its severe discipline has made it merely
mechanical. I suppose both — the critics and I — are
wrong. It is, at best, a humble attempt to place
at the disposal of the nation a home where men and
women may have scope for free and unfettered
development of character, in keeping with the
national genius, and, if its controllers do not take
care, the discipline that is the foundation of charac-
ter may frustrate the very end in view. I would
venture, therefore, to warn enthusiasts in co-opera-
tion against entertaining false hopes.

With Sir Daniel Hamilton it has become a
religion. On the 13th January last, he addressed the

24

students of the Scottish Churches College and, in
order to point a moral, he instanced Scotland's
poverty of two hundred years ago and showed how
that great country was raised from a condition of
poverty to plenty. " There were two powers, which
raised her — the Scottish Church and the Scottish
banks. The Church manufactured the men and the
banks manufactured the money to give the men a
start 'in life. . . . The Church disciplined the
nation in the fear of God which is the beginning of
wisdom and in the parish schools of the Church the
children learned that the chief end of man's life was
to glorify God and to enjoy Him for ever. Men
were trained to believe in God and in themselves,
and on the trustworthy character so created the
Scottish banking system was built." Sir Daniel then
shows that it was possible to build up the marvellous
Scottish banking system only on the character so
built. So far there can only be perfect agreement
with Sir Daniel, for that * without character there
is no co-operation * is a sound maxim. But he would
have us go much further. He thus waxes eloquent
on co-operation : " Whatever may be your day-
dreams of India's future, never forget this that it is
to weld India into one, and so enable her to take her
rightful place in the world, that the British Govern-
ment is here; and the welding hammer in the hand
of the Government is the co-operative movement."
In his opinion it is the panacea of all the evils
that afflict India at the present moment. In its
extended sense it can justify the claim on one condi-
tion which need not be mentioned here ; in the
limited sense in which Sir Daniel has used it, I
venture to think, it is an enthusiast's exaggeration.
Mark his peroration : "Credit, which is only Trust
and Faith, is becoming more and more the money
power of the world, and in the parchment bullet
into which is impressed the faith which removes
mountains, India will find victory and peace." Here
there is evident confusion of thought. The credit
which is becoming the money power of the world

25

has little moral basis and is not a synonym for Trust
or Faith, which are purely moral qualities. After
twenty years' experience of hundreds of men, who
had dealings with banks in South Africa, the opinion
I had so often heard expressed has become firmly
rooted in me, that the greater the rascal the greater
the credit he enjoys with his banks. The banks
do not pry into his moral character : they are
satisfied that he meets his overdrafts and promissory
notes punctually. The credit system has encircled
this beautiful globe of ours like a serpent's coil, and
if we do not mind, it bids fair to crush us out
of breath. I have witnessed the ruin of many a
home through the system, and it has made no differ-
ence whether the credit was labelled co-operative
or otherwise. The deadly coil has made passible the
devastating spectacle in Europe, which we are help-
lessly looking on. It was perhaps never so true
as it is today that, as in law so in war, the longest
purse finally wins. I have ventured to give promi-
nence to the current belief about credit system
in order to emphasise the point that the co-
operative movement will be a blessing to India only
to the extent that it is a moral movement strictly
directed by men fired with religious fervour. It
follows, therefore, that co-operation should be con-
fined to men wishing to be morally right, but failing
to do so, because of grinding poverty or of the
grip of the Mahajan. Facility for obtaining loans at
fair rates will not make immoral men moral. But
the wisdom of the Estate or philanthropists demands
that they should help on the onward path, men
struggling to be good.

Too often do we believe that material prosperity
means moral growth. It is necessary that a move-
ment which is fraught with so much good to India
should not degenerate into one for merely advancing
cheap loans. I was therefore delighted to read
the recommendation in the Report of the Committee
on Co-operation in India, that " they wish clearly
to express their opinion that it is to true co-opera-

26

tion alone, that is, to a co-operation which recog-
nises the moral aspect of the question that Govern-
ment must look for the amelioration of the masses
and not to a pseudo-co-operative edifice, however
imposing, which is built in ignorance of co-operative
principles." With this standard before us, we will
not measure the success of the movement by the
number of co-operative societies formed, but by the
moral condition of the co-operators. The registrars
will, in that event, ensure the moral growth of
existing societies before multiplying them. And the
Government will make their promotion conditional,
not upon the number of societies they have regis-
tered, but the moral success of the existing institu-
tions. This will mean tracing the course of every
pie lent to the members. Those responsible for
the proper conduct of co-operative societies will
see to it that the money advanced does not
find its way into the toddy-seller's bill or into the
pockets of the keepers of gambling dens. I would
excuse the rapacity of the Mahajan if it has suc-
ceeded in keeping the gambling die or toddy from
the ryot's home.

A word perhaps about the Mahajan will not
be out of place. Co-operation is not a new device.
The ryots co-operate to drum out monkeys or birds
that destroy their crops. They co-operate to use a
common thrashing floor. I have found them co-
operate to protect their cattle to the extent of their
devoting the best land for the grazing of their
cattle. And they have been found co-operating
against a particular rapacious Mahajan. Doubts
have been expressed as to the success of co-opera-
tion because of the tightness of the Mahajan's hold
on the ryots. I do not share the fears. The
mightiest Mahajan must, if he represent an evil
force, bend before co-operation, conceived as an
essentially moral movement. But my limited experi-
ence of the Mahajan of Champaran has ^made me
revise the accepted opinion about his * blighting
influence/ I have found him to be not always

27

relentless, not always exacting of the last pie. He
sometimes serves his clients in many ways and even
comes to their rescue in the hour of their distress.
My observation is so limited that I dare not draw
any conclusions from it, but I respectfully enquire
whether it is not possible to make a serious effort to
draw out the good in the Mahajan and help him or
induce him to throw out the evil in him. May he
not be induced to join the army of co-operation,
or has experience proved that he is past praying
for?

I note that the movement takes note of all indi-
genous industries. I beg publicly to express my
gratitude to Government for helping me in my
humble effort to improve the lot of the weaver.
The experiment I am conducting shows that there is
a vast field for work in this direction. No well-
wisher of India, no patriot dare look upon the
impending destruction of the hand-loom weaver with
equanimity. As Dr. Mann has stated, this industry
used to supply the peasant with an additional source
of livelihood and an insurance against famine.
Every registrar who will nurse back to life this
important and graceful industry will earn the grati-
tude of India. My humble effort consists firstly in
making researches as to the possibilities of simple
reforms in the orthodox hand-looms, secondly, in
weaning the educated youth from the craving for
Government or other services and the feeling that
education renders him unfit for independent occupa-
tion and inducing him to take to weaving as a calling
as honourable as that of a barrister or a doctor,
and thirdly by helping those weavers who have
abandoned their occupation to revert to it., I will
not weary the audience with any statement on the
first two parts of the experiment. The third may be
allowed a few sentences as it has a direct bearing
upon the subject before us. I was able to enter
upon it only six months ago. Five families that had
left otf the calling have leverted to it and they
are doing a prosperous business. The Ashram supplies

28

them at their door with the yarn they need ; its
volunteers take delivery of the cloth woven, paying
them cash at the market rate. The Ashram merely
loses interest on the loan advanced for the yarn. It
has as yet suffered no loss and is able to restrict its
loss to a minimum by limiting the loan to a particu-
lar figure. All future transactions are strictly cash.
We are able to command a ready sale for the cloth
received. The loss of interest, therefore, on the
transaction is negligible. I would like the audience
to note its purely moral character from start to
finish. The Ashram depends for its existence on
such help as friends render it. We, therefore, can
have no warrant for charging interest. The weavers
could not be saddled with it. Whole families that
were breaking to pieces are put together again. The
use of the loan is pre-determined. And we, the
middlemen, being volunteers, obtain the privilege of
entering into the lives ot these families, I hope, for
their and our betterment. We cannot lift them
without being lifted ourselves. This last relation-
ship has not yet been developed, but we hope, at an
early date, to take in hand the education too of
these families and not rest satisfied till we have
touched them at every point. This is not too
ambitious a dream. God willing, it will be a reality
some day. I have ventured to dilate upon the small
experiment to illustrate what I mean by co-opera-
tion to present it to others for imitation. Let us be
sure of our ideal. We shall ever fail to realise
it, but we should never cease to strive for it. Then
there need be no fear of ** co-operation of
scoundrels " that Ruskin so rightly dreaded.

NATIONAL DRESS*

I have hitherto successfully resisted to tempta-
tion of either answering your or Mr. Irwin's critic-
ism of the humble work I am doing in Champaran.
Nor am I going to succumb now except with regard
to a matter which Mr. Irwin has thought fit to dwell
upon and about which he has not even taken the
trouble of being correctly informed. I refer to his
remarks on my manner of dressing.

My " familiarity with the minor amenities of
Western civilisation " has taught me to respect my
national costume, and it may interest Mr. Irwin to
know that the dress I wear in Champaran is the
dress I have always worn in India except that for a
very short period in India I fell an easy prey in
common with the rest of my countrymen to the
wearing of semi-European dress in the courts and
elsewhere outside Kathiawar. I appeared before the
Kathiawar courts now 21 years ago in precisely the
dress I wear in Champaran.

One change I have made and it is that, having
taken to the occupation of weaving and agriculture
and having taken the vow of Swadeshi, my clothing
is now entirely hand-woven and hand-sewn and
made by me or my fellow workers. Mr. Irwin's
letter suggests that I appear before the ryots in a
dress I have temporarily and specially adopted in
Champaran to produce an etfect. The fact is that I
wear the national dress because it is the most
natural and the most becoming for an Indian. I
believe that our copying of the European dtess is a
sign of our degradation, humiliation and our weak-
ness, and that we are committing a national sin in
discarding a dress which is best suited to the Indian

*Reply.to Mr. Irwin's criticism of his dress in the Pioneer.

30

climate and which, for its simplicity, art and cheap-
ness, is not to be beaten on the face of the earth and
which answers hygienic requirements. Had it not
been for a false pride and equally false notions of
prestige, Englishmen here would long ago have
adopted the Indian costume. I may mention inci-
dentally that I do not go about Champaran bare
headed. I do avoid shoes for sacred reasons. But I
find too that it is more natural and healthier to
avoid them whenever possible.

I am sorry to inform Mr. Irwin and your readers
that my esteemed friend Babu Brijakishore Prasad,
the "ex-Hon. Member of Council," still remains
unregenerate and retains the provincial cap and
never walks barefoot and kt kicks up " a terrible
noise even in the house we are living in by wearing
wooden sandals. He has st 11 not the courage, in spite
of most admirable contact with me, to discard his
semi-anglicised dress and whenever he goes to see
officials he puts his legs into the bifurcated garment
and on his own admission tortures himself by cramp-
ing his feet in inelastic shoes. I cannot induce him
to believe that his clients won't desert him and the
courts won't punish him if he wore his more becom-
ing and less expensive dhoti. I invite you and Mr.
Irwin not to believe the " stories " that the latter
hears about me and my friends, but to join me in the
crusade against educated Indians abandoning their
manners, habits and customs which are not proved to
be bad or harmful. Finally I venture to warn you
and Mr. Irwin that you and he will ill-serve the cause
both of you consider is in danger by reason of my
presence in Champaran if you continue, as you have
done, to base your strictures on unproved facts. I
ask you to accept my assurance that I should deem
myself unworthy of the friendship and confidence of
hundreds of my English friends and associates — not
all of them fellow cranks — if in similar circumstances
I acted towards them differently from my own
countrymen.

31

Printed by K. R. Sondhi at the Allied Press, Lahore, and published
by R. P. Soni for Gandhi Publications League, Lahore.

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